Camping reservations for provincial parks will go live today as BC Parks launches a new online booking system in hopes of fixing bugs that plagued its website in the past.
Campers can now book sites up to two months in advance for most provincial parks under a new interface that tells the province to improve the user experience, allowing people to create user accounts and save their camping preferences.
The redesign comes after a series of crashes related to its previous online service in recent seasons, including website crashes and system errors.
“We have certainly experienced much more use of BC parks and camping over the last two years,” said George Heyman, Minister for Environment and Climate Change Strategy. “Along with that came … the problems with the stability of the site.”
Heyman says the new system has increased server capacity to prevent crashes. It was designed with input from campers, parking operators and other service organizations.
New features include:
- More flexible search options such as a map to search campsites by region, parking list or site availability.
- Information on nearby facilities and great photos of campsites so people know what to expect when they arrive.
- An interactive calendar that shows when booked sites are available.
- Stored booking preferences within client accounts.
Changes to no-show rules
The renovation also comes with a policy change regarding users who book a campsite but do not show up.
Under previous rules, campers could keep a site for days without ever getting up, frustrating those who are unable to secure a place of their own.
“We have seen quite a lot of abuse of that system,” said Louise Pedersen, executive director of BC’s Outdoor Recreation Council. “There were some camping enthusiasts who were unable to get a site. [Golden Ears Provincial Park] and then went inside and saw that 30 percent of the sites were not used.
Under the new system, campers who do not show up on the second day of their booking at 11am will have their reservations canceled, the site will then be open to the public again.
Pedersen applauds the change. However, with the demand for camping significantly increasing in recent years, she says she would see a shifted version of the reservation system for campsites in the lower mainland, so it is not always a crazy rush for people to book.
The vast majority of campsites in the lower mainland are only available through reservation.
“If you do not know your schedule in the next few months … you can not get one of these sites,” she said.
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